The Next Trillionaires Will Be Recyclers, Not Extractors
For centuries, wealth has been built on extraction. Whether it’s digging up minerals, felling forests, or draining fossil fuels, the story of capitalism has largely been one of taking—taking from the earth, from workers, and from future generations. This model created incredible prosperity, but it also created massive waste, inequality, and environmental destruction.
And at the heart of it all is planned obsolescence. The design strategy to make products break, become outdated, or lose usefulness just as consumers are ready to buy again. It’s the engine of artificial demand—the reason we replace phones every two years, toss out electronics after a few uses, and buy fast fashion that barely lasts a season.
This endless churn keeps markets growing, but it also fuels climate change, fills landfills, and traps workers in cycles of overwork and underpayment.
But what if there was another way?
A New Economic Frontier: Durable, Circular, and Communal
Imagine an economy where products are made to last forever—or at least for decades. Where everything is designed for repair, upgrade, and recycling. Where the energy powering production is effectively free, coming from community-owned solar, wind, and geothermal sources. Where tools and factories are not privately hoarded but entrusted to local communities when their owners pass away.
In this economy, the market no longer thrives on waste. Instead, it thrives on solving real problems efficiently and sustainably. Where the price of a product reflects its true value, not a markup for built-in failure.
This is post-growth capitalism: Not abandoning markets or innovation, but removing the distortions that create artificial scarcity and ecological harm.
Wealth in the New Era: From Extraction to Reclamation
In this future, you can still get filthy rich—but not by exploiting scarcity or creating artificial demand. Wealth comes from innovation in durability, creating open and modular platforms, mastering recycling technology, and building community production hubs.
The path to riches lies in repair, reuse, and reinvention, not in extraction or disposability.
The Bold Truth
The next trillionaires will be recyclers, not extractors.
They will build fortunes by turning waste into resource, by designing products that last and adapt, and by fostering ecosystems where people have the tools to fix and reuse rather than discard.
This shift isn’t just good for the planet—it’s good economics. It lowers costs, creates resilient communities, and unlocks human creativity and entrepreneurship in ways we’ve never seen.
Join the Movement
The future is durable. The future is circular. The future belongs to those who see value where others see garbage.
If you’re an innovator, entrepreneur, or policymaker, it’s time to rethink wealth. It’s time to rethink growth. And it’s time to build an economy that rewards repair, respect, and responsibility.
🦣 Find me and discuss this on Mastodon: @thilosch@mastodon.social